Hoot Man and the Natural World

The environment plays such a huge part in this book that we actually considered listing Mother Nature as a character.

But the natural world is more than just a component in Hoot, it's at the core of the book. Each main storyline (Roy, Curly, Delinko) is directly affected by these owls. And those little guys are just the tip of the iceberg.

On a larger scale, this book is about standing up against big corporations who destroy the environment in order to build their own versions of Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House. And as Roy points out to Mullet Fingers when he laments over his home being ruined by construction, "Same thing happens everywhere" (14.113).

Questions About Man and the Natural World

1. What kind of relationship does Roy have with the environment? What about Mullet Fingers?
2. How do the burrowing owls affect Officer Delinko over the course of the book?
3. Why does Curly try to deny that the owls live on the construction site property?

Chew on This

Two distinct relationships are portrayed in Hoot: how humanity affects the environment and how the environment affects humanity.

Roy acts as the medium between the two extremes of Mother Paula's and Mullet Fingers.